Sunday 25 February: Britain is plagued by hysteria – and politicians don’t know how to deal with it

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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498 thoughts on “Sunday 25 February: Britain is plagued by hysteria – and politicians don’t know how to deal with it”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. A novel way of looking at the classics

    BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH

    A great way to hear the first part of Beethoven’s fifth symphony. Click on the loudspeaker in the bottom right.
    https://www.facebook.com/bombeirovix/videos/2188077837892515/
    Highlight the underlined, hold the Ctrl button down and press ‘play’ (mouse click or whatever).
    A graphic reminder of this piece which starts with “V for Victory”
    How we have wasted that victory
    Finally got to play it on February 1st 2020.

  3. Good morrow, gentlefolk. A novel way of looking at the classics

    BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH

    A great way to hear the first part of Beethoven’s fifth symphony. Click on the loudspeaker in the bottom right.
    https://www.facebook.com/bombeirovix/videos/2188077837892515/
    Highlight the underlined, hold the Ctrl button down and press ‘play’ (mouse click or whatever).
    A graphic reminder of this piece which starts with “V for Victory”
    How we have wasted that victory
    Finally got to play it on February 1st 2020.

  5. Bodyguards for MPs as extremism threat rises. 25 Frbruary 2024.

    On Saturday night, Rishi Sunak warned that Parliament had sent a “very dangerous signal” that “intimidation works” when Sir Lindsay broke with precedent to allow Labour to table a vote during an SNP debate. Mr Sunak said legitimate protests were being “hijacked by extremists to promote and glorify terrorism”.

    The extremism that has no name! Lol! It is difficult to convey how unutterably vile these people are. It is they that have created this situation and are now trying to insulate themselves from it and abandoning their constituents to their fate.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/24/mps-given-bodyguards-as-extremism-threat-rises/

    1. 38389+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      Also abandoning their remaining member / voters.
      proving you need a very long spoon to
      sup with these odious political creatures.

    2. It would be frightening to know that these dangerous politicians ushered in the extremism due to incompetence but to understand that it was done with malice aforethought by successive governments is terrifying. They can bleat all they like, they are the architects of their own demise.

      They have sown the wind and shall reap the whirlwind.

    3. Peter Hain on R4 this morning said it was Tommy Robinson causing trouble, despite the fact that he is banned from being inside the M25. His trial is due soon, expect a jail sentence.

  6. Morning, all Y’all.
    Still raining.
    Seems that The Donald won nomination in South Carolina. Haley crushed.

  7. Morning, all Y’all.
    Still raining.
    Seems that The Donald won nomination in South Carolina. Haley crushed.

    1. Time to call in the troops and water cannon,…….oh hang on the only thing that reaches that criteria is water.
      Mps are far busy investigating pensioners private Bank accounts.
      That’s the most important thing on their list. They’ve effed up everything else they touched. Why not pensioners lives.

    2. On the plus side, he inadvertently highlighted what many had suspected.
      Labour depends upon the Slammer vote to win the general election.

    1. Here is that earlier interview between Dr John Campbell and Major Tom Haviland, with lots of shots of clots (lovely assonance):

      NOTE: Not for the squeamish – I was a pathologist.

      Try this:

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    Double F this morning fog and frost.
    And a long range warning of snow next month.
    The seaweed on the shed door of the Met office must be damp again.
    The only thing politicians know what to deal with is their expenses claims.

  11. How the UN lost its moral authority. 25 February 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/132ac14bafe51c276f3a68808b98ae74c2d6e220a1312f94e79e01b144e401f3.png

    The failure of the UN to act decisively is yet another example of how the organisation, which was established in the post-war era with the precise aim of preventing future world wars, has lost its authority and credibility just as the threat of war has ramped up.

    Putin is, after all, responsible for provoking the biggest conflict Europe has witnessed since the Second World War, one that has all the potential to escalate into a far broader confrontation spreading beyond the confines of Ukraine.

    I had to smile here where the Graphic had to be changed to include the USSR which without it would have left the US looking like the villain of the piece. Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/25/how-un-enemies-conspired-destroy-moral-authority/

    2. BTL Comment:-

      “Putin is, after all, responsible for provoking the biggest conflict Europe has witnessed since the Second World War…”

      There are many who would disagree with that, especially when considering the events of the Maidan Putsch and years leading up to the invasion.
      One could dig even further back and look at the way the West (NATO and EU together) have pushed their influence right up to Russia’s borders despite the many assurances that this would not happen.

    3. Not sure that a lot can be deduced from this graph alone. The UK and France probably don’t want to use the veto too often in case they get their permanent seats revoked. China may have abstained from using it because they knew Russia would. Etc.

    4. Omitting the vetoes of the USSR would entail shrinking the columns of the other four such that they all start from the date that Russia replaced the USSR as a permanent member of the UN’s Security Council.

  12. Good morning all.

    The beaming of ‘from the river to the sea’ onto parliament was a slap in the face to this country and a show of Islamic supremacy. The police stood by and allowed it, and Sunak punishes the likes of Braverman and Anderson who have the courage to speak the truth.

    I won’t say that this country is lost (yet) but we urgently need a change of leadership and the courage to stop trying to appease them, feeding the crocodile in the hope that it eats us last.

  14. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Frosty again at the McPhee demesne, wind in the East, 0℃ warming to 6 or 7℃. Rain this afternoon.

    Over at TCW, Kathy Gyngell has been publishing the transcript of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Mike Benz. It’s not an overstatement to say this is the most important, revealing interview he has so far done. I think it even tops the Putin interview. I’ve listened three times so far and I’m still agog. We dissidents knew we were being lied to, censored and manipulated even if we didn’t fully understand how or why. Now we do. We knew that the 2020 US election had been fixed. Now we have confirmation. This surely has to be a Damascene moment for the ‘cock-up not conspiracy’ crowd and the even the unconcerned. Or one would hope so. It’s on tuckercarlson.com in the uncensored section.

    If you haven’t listened yet, here it is:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/747c6663de1624a0f9701b1da23bdd791dbd8c6b1627417460717c81a8ffc838.png

    https://tuckercarlson.com/uncensored-the-national-security-state-the-inversion-of-democracy/

    Mike Benz’s organisatioin is Foundation for Freedom On Line:

    https://foundationforfreedomonline.com

    On ‘X’:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/208641fd5aa0e2b11c36ea0f6d99896e4873d6fe7fe48b35fb847f0335f4b596.png

    The On-Line Safety Act has nothing to do with child pornography, grooming or protecting the cry-babies from hurty words. It has everything to do with censorship at the behest of the CIA and the US State Department.

    1. The Delingpod with Jason Christoff is also interesting on how to spot or resist nudging. Jason Christoff is a bit liberal with history, but I see no reason to doubt his main thesis that the deep state uses repetitive, subconscious nudging to put ideas into people’s heads.

      1. I saw a video about how to influence the influencers a while ago. It was interesting how the desired result was introduced early and then the stimulus was provided for them to choose. They subconsciously made the connection.

    2. The Tucker Carlson video is spellbinding. Mike Benz has chapter and verse, dates and all, at his fingertips (I should say on the tip of his tongue). Watched the first 40 minutes during breakfast, will watch the rest later after contributing to Nottl.

    1. It’s difficult to understand how well equipped Ukraine actually is ?
      I wonder how that happened……

    2. Unusual for an AWACS to fly low over enemy territory. Being vulnerable, they would normally be at some height a good distance from the front. The last time I looked, the RAF and US were operating over Romania.

    1. At 7:20, when I got up, it was bright & sunny but with a mist clinging to the valley sides.
      By the time I made my 1st mug of tea that mist had descended to become a freezing fog, though not as dense as yesterday’s. At least I can still make out the cafe up the road!

    2. A Close Call

      Bill, you got away lightly.

      I had an interesting experience last year. After noticing that at night, car headlights had flare around them, I visited the optician who said I had cataracts in both eyes plus a condition that might soon develop into glaucoma.

      Because of significant astigmatism, I had worn spectacles for 50 years. The NHS does not provide ‘customised’ intra-ocular lenses for cataract repairs, so I decided to go private. The operation was also available almost immediately instead of a probable nine month wait.

      My right eye was done in early May – what a fantastic difference! I could read the finest print on my smartphone.

      Then on June 13, I was on the operating table, draped, with my left eye anaesthetised and the eyelids clipped back, waiting for the scalpel to go into my cornea. The Surgeon then said “ I’m sorry, this is the wrong lens. Can you come back next Wednesday?”.

      I said a naughty word, but very quickly realised how lucky I was that he had noticed the error in time. As you know by now, it is relatively quick and easy to insert a folded up lens into the eye, but it’s very difficult to get it out when it has expanded.

      Eight days later, on June 21st, I had my second eye done. Being a retired pathologist, I had chosen my right eye to be set up to be sharp from 14 inches to about 20 feet, the left eye to be sharp from extended fingertip to Infinity. That’s what you get when you choose to go private, as well as full astigmatism correction using Toric intra-ocular lenses. It also makes driving a cinch, as the right eye sees the instruments clearly while the left eye sees the road. The brain takes care of merging the images. And no more spectacles!

      I’m very glad the surgeon had read the label on the wrong lens before inserting it.

  17. Good morning, all. Misty and frosty at 6 o’clock this morning here in N Essex.

    We are all well aware that the majority of the current political class are very adept at both lying and obfuscating to conceal their true intentions. This is not a new phenomenon. From the 18th Century via The Dictionary of Insults:

    To Liars

    ‘If I cannot speak standing I will speak sitting, and if I cannot speak sitting I will speak lying,’ the Elder Pitt announced when a forthcoming debate was under discussion.

    ‘That he will do in whatever position he speaks,’ said Lord North.

    He’s such a liar you can’t even believe him when he says that he’s only lying.

    He never learned the lesson about telling the truth – that you don’t have to remember what you said the last time.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose !

    Life’s Losers

    He has that rare gift of trying to make his way in the world by pushing against the doors marked ‘Pull’.

    Plenty of good insults in the book and I will quote a few from time to time.

  18. Good morning all.
    A bright but cold start with -3°C on the Yard Thermometer and mist clinging to the side of the valley opposite when I got out of bed half an hour ago.
    The mist has since descended to valley floor level and is now a think, freezing fog in a repeat of yesterday’s start.

    A BTL Comment:-

    3 min ago
    “Britain is plagued by hysteria – and politicians don’t know how to deal with it”

    The irony in that headline.

    Hysteria has been created and fed by politicians for over a decade with Global Warming!/Climate Change!!/CLIMATE EMERGENCY!!!/CLIMATE CATASTROPHE!!!!/CLIMATE ARMAGEDDON!!!!!/GLOBAL BOILING!!!!!!{insert latest panic & scare mongering catch phrase here} and following through with the Covid hysteria.

    Now they are losing control of what they themselves created, they get worried???

    1. They have made such a mess of everything they have no where to turn to now. They are a tattered damp wrag blowing in the wind.
      And have proven they are absolutely useless.

    2. from the BBC:

      “The bodies of three women were found in a building in the central Brigittenau district at around 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) after a witness called the emergency services.

      The suspect, whom police have described as a 27-year-old Afghan national, was found hiding near the brothel with a knife in his hand”.

      ……….and politicians don’t know how to deal with it !

      1. This the one in Austria?

        Austria: Four women and a girl killed in Vienna in 24 hours
        By Kathryn Armstrong
        BBC News
        Police in Vienna are investigating the deaths of four women and a teenage girl in a 24-hour period.

        Three women were stabbed to death by a man in a brothel in Austria’s capital on Friday. A suspect was arrested.

        Another woman and her daughter were killed in an unrelated incident. Investigators believe the girl’s father was responsible.

        Campaigners described the day as “Black Friday” and called for urgent action to stop violence against women.

        The bodies of three women were found in a building in the central Brigittenau district at around 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) after a witness called the emergency services.

        The suspect, whom police have described as a 27-year-old Afghan national, was found hiding near the brothel with a knife in his hand.

        The motive for the killings is currently unclear but the man has been questioned.

        Earlier on Friday, a 51-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter were found dead in an apartment in the Erdberg area – about 12km (seven miles) from where the other incident happened.

        There is no suggestion they are connected.

        Police are still searching for the woman’s husband, who is also the girl’s father, as investigators suspect he may have strangled or choked them to death.

        “The initial investigations, which are currently under way, indicate that blunt force was involved,” said police spokesman Philip Hasslinger.

        Eva-Maria Holzleitner, the leader of the women’s policy department of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPO), has urged the federal government to call a crisis meeting to discuss the issue of femicide in the country.

        “We mourn the murdered women, are thinking about the survivors and call for a national action plan to protect against violence to finally be implemented in order to protect women’s lives in Austria,” said Ms Holzleitner.

        Klaudia Frieben, leader of umbrella organisation the Austrian Women’s Ring (OFR), wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “this day will go down in history as Black Friday with five dead women”.

        According to the latest data on femicide rates in Austria, published by the Institute of Conflict Research, some 319 women were killed in the country between 2010 and 2020 – mostly by male partners or ex-partners.

        The coalition government has vowed to crack down on the issue – pledging almost €25m (£21m) in 2021 to initiatives aimed at protecting women against violence.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68392233

    5. The irony being that they have created all this hysteria around nothing in order to deal with the actual threat to security which was entirely created by them and which we’re not supposed to know about, namely the end of this debt based currency system and the unwinding of quadrillions of dollars’ worth of derivatives contracts.

  19. 383895+ up ticks,

    Give MPs protection because their very own creation has, and will continue to bite them on their pin stripe clad arses, they get what the indigenous have been suffering for years , to RUN THE GAUNTLET.

  20. “SIR – I am the only person I know who had a close relative killed in the First World War (Letters, February 18), though there must be others.

    I was born in 1946. My father was born in 1906. My uncle, Thomas George, who was born 1892, died on August 1 1916 as a result of injuries received in the Battle of the Somme. Eric Harpham Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire”

    My paternal grandfather’s (b. 1908) older cousin was killed, at the battle of the Somme too, I think. I wonder whether it’s just people don’t know their family history? Of course, that half our population is apparently foreign-born doesn’t help and maybe that’s the point our Eric was rather too-subtly trying to make.

    1. I know nothing of my Mother’s side of the family – I can’t even be sure of her Mother’s (my Grandmother’s) given name. I’d not recognise a photo of her. Let alone any relatives older than that.Similar on Father’s side, but at least there my Brother has the photos and papers. So, I have no idea if any were killed in the First war – I suspect from my Father’s side that, since they were miners, they kept digging coal.

      1. Tbh I wouldn’t recognise a photo of any of them. Of my four great grand fathers, two were in Africa building railways on the Gold Coast during the Great War, one had died early so wasn’t “eligible” to fight and we know nothing of the fourth (although recent family research by my cousin’s husband indicates he fought in the Boer War. But given his son, who married my maternal Grandma, abandoned her in 1946 with a 3 year old and 8 year old, we have never paid him any attention and I’m not about to start now).

        1. If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,
          Would you be proud of them or not, or don’t you really know?
          Some strange discoveries are made when climbing family trees,
          And some of them you know do not particularly please.
          .
          If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,
          There might be some of them perhaps, you wouldn’t care to know.
          But here’s another question which requires a different view.
          If you could meet your ancestors, would they be proud of you?
          (from Edith Fletcher’s pedigree book)

          1. Ainsley got a nasty surprise when he got “This is your life”d, that an ancestor had sold blacks for slaves in Africa.
            That must have hurt the poor man. Imagine suddenly finding out your grand-dad was a concentration camp guard in Belsen? That kind of thing would shake anybody.

        2. My Granddad was a cavalryman during the Boer war. My other Granddad was a drive in the RASC in the first world and was attached to an ambulance unit. Nan’s brother had moved to South Wales for work and enlisted in the Welch Regiment. He died at home of wounds and is commemorated on the War Memorial in Besthorpe Norfolk

      2. Recently I’ve made contact with a second cousin and his sister has also come to light. I have seen a photo of her and she is the very image of her grandmother, whose husband was the only known member of my father’s (his eldest brother) family to be lost in WW2.

      3. Funnily enough, it is my Mother’s side that has been most productive, being traceable back to 530 with Egil, King in Sweden , Uppsala

        On my Father’s side I can only go back to 1580 before it peters out, But I am 50th generation and now have 53 generations in total.

        1. Wow!
          Just found both grandfathers birh certificates – that’s as far back as I can trace without going to Parish records.

          1. I was helped by many genealogists – some family and some on Ancestry.com.

            Don’t be afraid to yell for help. Many came forward and it cost me not a penny.

    2. Nobody in my family was killed in WW1 (or 2 for that matter). We are a “thankful” family. Largely because the men were in protected occupations (farming and mining) and we lived away from large conurbations (although my grandmother did see a Zeppelin fly over once).

  21. “SIR – I am the only person I know who had a close relative killed in the First World War (Letters, February 18), though there must be others.

    I was born in 1946. My father was born in 1906. My uncle, Thomas George, who was born 1892, died on August 1 1916 as a result of injuries received in the Battle of the Somme. Eric Harpham Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire”

    My paternal grandfather’s (b. 1908) older cousin was killed, at the battle of the Somme too, I think. I wonder whether it’s just people don’t know their family history? Of course, that half our population is apparently foreign-born doesn’t help and maybe that’s the point our Eric was rather too-subtly trying to make.

  22. WHAT A MONSTROUS LIE

    BBC should be proud to be progressive, director general told staff

    Tim Davie says corporation walks a ‘joyous tightrope of the culture wars’ in a leaked recording

    Steven Edginton
    24 February 2024 • 8:30pm

    The BBC’s director general told staff the corporation should be proud to be progressive, The Telegraph can reveal.

    In a leaked recording, Tim Davie said the BBC walked a “joyous tightrope of the culture wars”, and said “being progressive” was something staff “should be proud of”.

    He made the remarks during an online question and answer session with employees, in which he said the corporation was “fair and balanced technically in terms of impartiality” in its coverage and did not have “party political bias”.

    However, critics of the BBC reacted angrily to Mr Davie’s comments, which came to light after The Telegraph acquired footage of the meeting in January 2021, claiming they amounted to a political position.

    In the recording, a BBC employee told Mr Davie there was “a real perception out there that we haven’t done enough to tackle impartiality, that we need to ‘de-woke’,” and asked him: “How would you respond to that?”.

    Mr Davie said: “We do a reasonably good job of walking along the joyous tightrope of the culture wars where, being progressive, diverse, doing the things we should be proud of, is not woke. But meanwhile, we’ve got to make sure that we are clearly representing views from across the board.”

    Responding to The Telegraph’s findings, a BBC spokesman said the director general meant progressive “in relation to areas like market-led technological change” and that “any other interpretation is wrong”.

    Dame Priti Patel, a former Home Secretary, told The Telegraph: “The BBC once again have serious questions to answer over their political bias and culture.

    “The public expects this taxpayer-funded broadcaster to be impartial, balanced and fair. But these latest revelations show they are obsessed with promoting a liberal metropolitan elitist agenda that most of the country disapproves of.”

    Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, said: “Tim Davie’s comments confirm how deeply embedded Left-wing ideology is at the BBC. These comments prove the BBC is not fit for purpose and should be immediately defunded.”

    Robin Aitken, a former senior BBC journalist, said: “A progressive groupthink dominates the BBC, including its director general. BBC people simply don’t seem to understand that not everyone shares their opinions and that to social conservatives the consensus BBC view on social issues and concepts like ‘diversity’ is itself controversial.

    “For Tim Davie to say the BBC is proud to be progressive is to take a firm, and controversial, political position. It suggests he has a very poor understanding of what true impartiality looks like. If the BBC is, as he claims, a ‘progressive’ organisation, that inevitably excludes those, like me, who don’t identify as progressive.”

    Mr Aitken said that “directly contradicts the BBC’s core mission, which is to accurately reflect all shades of opinion, not merely those of progressives”, adding: “Inadvertently, the director general has highlighted the scale of the problem he faces if he intends real reform at the corporation.”

    Under its Royal Charter, submitted to Parliament in 2016 and subject to an updated framework agreement in 2022, the BBC is committed to “reflecting a wide range of subject matter and perspectives across our output as a whole and over an appropriate timeframe so that no significant strand of thought is under-represented or omitted.”

    A BBC source told The Telegraph: “To respond to a question about how the BBC can rid itself of ‘wokeism’ by saying we should be proud of being progressive and diverse is revealing. Tim doesn’t understand that these viewpoints are contested and not shared by many of our viewers.

    “Unfortunately, this politically naive attitude is widespread across the BBC.”

    tmg.video.placeholder.alt 3LwIRxqI9Xg
    During the 2021 meeting, Mr Davie also said: “There are areas of the BBC that are doing brilliantly, but there are areas we can improve and we are in danger, at points, of groupthink – I am, everyone else – unconscious bias, call it what you will. We need to free ourselves from that and really be representing the audience.”

    A BBC spokesman said: “The director general has certainly talked about steering the BBC through the challenges of the culture wars.

    “When talking about being progressive, the very point is that we need to evolve and keep relevant in relation to areas like market led technological change and this should not be confused with the BBC taking a political or cultural position, which is clearly not our role. Any other interpretation is wrong.”

    The development comes after a recent poll that found more than half of working class viewers who think the quality of BBC news has declined blamed “wokeness” for that, according to Public First, a research agency.

    James Frayne, a founding partner of Public First, said: “By four to one, leave voters agree the BBC is too woke, and around 40 per cent of Leavers say the quality of BBC news has gone down in the last decade – primarily blaming apparent ‘wokeness’ for this.

    “If Tim Davie’s strategy holds, their leak of working-class Leave voting support will resemble a dam burst. While the BBC doesn’t have a universal problem, they have a developing serious problem with working-class Leave voters who appear to be turning off the BBC in droves.”

    Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, recently accused the corporation of bias, citing its reporting on an attack on a hospital in Gaza last year as an example.

    Danny Cohen, a former director of BBC Television, wrote in The Telegraph last month that the BBC “is being undermined in its duty to impartiality by institutional bias, anti-Israel sentiment”.

    ********************************************

    Richard Kitson
    11 HRS AGO
    I think he means by describing the BBC as progressive that they are rabid left-wing biased, anti-semitic, woke parasites living off the backs of the working class.

    Patrick Nobbs
    10 HRS AGO
    Progressive once meant enlightened. It now describes the crushing bigotry of gender dogma, racial identity hierarchy (in which white Britons are excluded and/or diminished wherever possible) and a far left, single minded mono-cultural message is broadcast. A recent children’s series song featured a narrative that black Africans built Britains across history. Whereas in reality no evidence of any such people existing has ever been found. Even now they are barely 4% of the population. Yet they dominate programming & advertising in extraordinary, often creepy scenarios – including black Dad, white Mum and Indian & Chinese children. That’s not progress. EDITED

    1. Spot on Mr Kitson and Mr Nobbs.
      There are now more people from ethnic minority on our TV screens than could possibly be a percentage representation of their existence.
      And it’s interesting to see how the bbc would go miles off of their path of self-righteousness to over emphasis the faked up oppression of the indigenous people of Australia. But refuse point blank to recognise the indigenous people who are the mainstay of Britain.
      It’s not just Whitehall and Wastemonster that needs flushing out with a powerful disinfectant.

    2. Let’s start a fund to produce some “Proud to be Progressive” lapel pins for Tim Davie to hand out at staff meetings.

        1. I have a very jolly umbrella bought for me by SWMBO some years ago, in rainbow colours. I don’t use it, sadly, because it has political meaning, not happiness, at heart. Bastards.

    2. Like the CO2 fraud, there was nothing to see with your own eyes. And the stuff that we did see with our own eyes post vaccination (friends and relatives getting sick or dying at a greater frequency than previously), is denied and ignored.

      Richard D Hall’s work is interesting in this context. When I looked at his website I watched a very good video on how he installed a rainwater collection system at home, but I thought the rest of the site was rather fanciful. I now realise that he is simply an engineer posing reasonable questions about various events – but instead of answering the questions, the establishment has taken him to court and labelled him something like “the most dangerous conspiracy theorist in Britain.” We always seem to come back to “how dare you question the narrative.” Yet most of us are aware that if you have personal knowledge of anything that’s reported in the media, the media version is never accurate even with the best of intentions.

      1. That’s why I stopped watching the beeb after the run up to the Hunting Act. They were peddling anti-hunting propaganda that had no basis in what really took place. Because I’d had experience I could judge the falsity of their presentations. Trust, once lost, is almost impossible to regain.

  25. It’s intriguing that the ST has published this:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97a531dfcfd9aad0f5c203552f7067cf1ad0771a8877530d15683ecc23e3307d.png

    I suspect many of us knew it anyway. They were never invited but this may not be the whole truth. I have read that the ‘enterprising proprietors’ were members of a certain demographic who are infamous for their promotion of diversity as a form of protection for themselves (which has now back-fired spectacularly). I have also read that when the ‘Windrush’ docked, it was met by a government minister (Herbert Morrison, Mandelson’s grandfather? ) who told them to go away again. I don’t know the veracity of this but it seems to me that there is an interesting line of research here -if it hasn’t been buried by now.

    1. And of course its quite possible that all these leeches, parasitic and sycophantic excuses for humanity have allowed our armed forces to diminish because they know that it would have been the only way to control them.

      1. What would be the one trigger that would get Britain into the planned third world war?
        Wild talk about Putin invading wouldn’t cut it.
        Argentina invading the Falkland isles again would do the trick.
        And the Navy has been run down to such an extent that it would probably be a miracle if they could navigate there at all a few years from now.

        1. I don’t know, but someone else has to take over this parliament, its totally out of control.
          I think I saw a couple of days ago that we had donated 12 billion pounds to Ukraine. What are they spending that on ?

    2. Yo SJ

      I prefer the word “Disinformation by the Liars”

      disinformation • dis-in-fer-MAY-shun • noun. :
      false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the plantingof rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.

      Examples: The writer’s latest book examines the effects of propaganda and disinformation during the’war’ on Covid. “

        1. Indeed. I prefer just to settle on ‘Lies.’

          But if one prefers longer words, is telling your children elaborate tales about Father Christmas coming down the chimney disinformation or misinformation?

  27. Warning. blood-pressure moment. Extract from Lauren Almeida’s article in today’s Terriblegraph entitled “ Why Sharia pension funds are beat­ing the mar­ket”

    Quote:”… Over the past decade, City fund managers have ventured into Sharia finance, designing funds that invest in a way that complies with Islamic finance principles. This means that millions of British Muslims, who otherwise would not have been able to build a retirement pot, can do so.

    These pension funds are in reality very similar to investment funds that screen out companies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Sharia funds must avoid “sin” stocks such as companies involved in gambling, porn and tobacco. Where these funds truly diverge from the norm is their avoidance of riba, which is an asset that bears interest – this means they cannot invest in bonds. They also do not invest in gharar assets, which are deemed to have excessive risk of uncertainty. This excludes certain types of derivatives, which are complex financial securities.

    The exclusion of fixed income means Sharia funds are much more risky than a traditional balanced investment fund that puts savers’ money into a mix of equities and bonds. And the strategy, by fault or design, appears to have paid off – with Sharia funds outperforming their conventional rivals…. WHY HAVE SHARIA PENSION FUNDS OUTPERFORMED?

    Most pension funds “lifestyle” people’s savings by gradually allocating more of their money towards lower risk investments, typically bonds and money market funds, as they get closer to a set retirement date. This means that the value of their pension pot is less likely to fluctuate dramatically in the run up to their retirement, which could knock their plans to leave work off course.

    However, this process is not possible in Sharia pension funds.

    The money remains completely invested in stocks the whole time, which means they record both bigger gains and steeper losses.

    For the past decade, stocks have vastly outperformed the bond market. This has meant that while traditional pension funds have recorded steady gains, tempered by their exposure to fixed income, Sharia pension funds have stormed ahead. In the past five years alone, the Nest Sharia fund has delivered returns of 117pc, compared with 40pc from its 2040 Retirement Plan fund (which is designed for people reaching retirement age in 2040).

    HOW TO ASK FOR A SHARIA PENSION FUND

    You do not have to be Muslim to invest in a Sharia pension fund – but anyone considering this move for non-religious reasons should think carefully about whether it is worth taking on such a high-risk approach to your retirement savings….”

    You also do not have to accept “Lifestyling”. If you want to remain invested in equities, just do so. I am sick to death of Shariah.

    1. Unfortunately I cannot close this image – it just appeared open and has no close link. Would it be possible to put it behind a spoiler? My family can see my computer screen and there is no point spoiling everyone’s breakfast…

      1. On the same level as anne’s post name on the right hand side of the screen is a dash and 3 dots — …
        Click the dash —

      3. Can’t edit in a spoiler. Sorry. 🙁
        But if you hit the “minus” sign to the right, by the dots, the whole thread vanishes.

        1. Edit to trial

          If you add ” image ” around what you wish to hide I believe it works

          you need to set “spoiler” and “/spoiler” within and it works

      4. Can’t edit in a spoiler. Sorry. 🙁
        But if you hit the “minus” sign to the right, by the dots, the whole thread vanishes.

  29. My night time audio book just now is Vol One of Chips Channon’s Diaries.
    In 1937 he was complaining that the BBC was an appalling left-wing outfit…..

  30. Good morning, it’s 4°C on the Costa Clyde with high clouds and a gentle breeze from the NE. Suitable weather for my conservation duties; releasing golf balls back into the wild.

  32. Yo all

    There are many Hibab wearing women in the picture at the top of the Letters Page.

    I wonder how many are marching ‘for the cause’ and not because they have been told to, by their Lords and Masters.

    1. I always wanted to do that, Fiscal. I love a peal of bells – we lived for some years in the High Street in Newport Pagnell, often woken on Sunday morning to the bells from St Peters Church just up the road. It’s the only thing I miss from not living in the UK – a peal of bells. Here, as in most of Europe, you just get a mournful donging rather than the expressive music of the peal.
      Sighs wistfully

        1. A couple of our friends use to live near Willen lakes. They moved to a new build in Stoney Stratford.

      2. Friend of mine, who has perfect pitch, mentioned that Ward sings slightly sharp throughout. As he result he can’t listen to it!

  35. Zoe Strimple pointing out a few facts with a long BTL comment:-

    It’s chilling how quickly the October 7 massacre is being forgotten

    The world appears to have dropped all pretence of acknowledging what started the war in Gaza
    Zoe Strimpel
    24 February 2024 • 7:00pm
    The sight of anti-Israel propaganda, especially stickers and posters about “Israeli apartheid” and various spins on this slander, is utterly commonplace – and has only become more so since October 7. Whenever I can, I peel this nasty stuff off station walls, benches, lampposts and the like.
    At the end of last week, I plucked a big round one off a bike rack outside a university in London. It consisted of a giant blue Star of David crossed out with a red bar reading: “Boycott Israeli genocide”. It also featured a red rim around the circle that said: “Boycott Child Killers… Boycott Terror…Boycott Liars… Boycott Thieves”. It was a lot of anti-Semitic tropes to pack into one sticker.
    The Jew-menacing tenor of such material has become considerably more pronounced in the past month or so, as Israel’s programme of eradicating Hamas continues. It is beginning to feel as if the world has dropped all pretence of acknowledging what started the whole thing in the first place.
    Instead of supporting Israel in its attempt to finish a job that is not only of the utmost necessity for its own continued existence, but hugely important for the future of the West, we see instead a wide range of anti-Semitic tantrums thrown globally, with crowds chanting “from the river to the sea” – a call strongly associated with the eradication of the Jews from Israel.
    So: below all the boilerplate support for Israel after Hamas’s pogrom, the truth was this: Israel was only ever going to be given two, three weeks tops after the massacres to make things right again for itself (which was obviously impossible), after which point the great and the good would lose patience, demand that Israel lay down arms, let Hamas regroup and win, and continually and falsely accuse the Israeli military of being trigger-happy where Palestinian lives are concerned.
    Indeed, the necessary continuation of Israel’s campaign seems to have enraged both the respectable – Lord Cameron, Sir Keir Starmer and hundreds of parliamentarians – and the less so, including keffiyeh-wearing far-Left activists, Islamists, and of course the thousands who turn out on the streets every weekend to demonise Israel.
    It’s not surprising that this lot have no clue about the concept of waging a just war and why doing so is different from committing genocide, but it’s more troubling that this distinction seems to have completely escaped the sensibilities even of senior Conservative members of the Cabinet and the UK’s likely next prime minister.
    Last week’s Commons debate on a ceasefire in Gaza showed how far the goalposts have moved, how normalised this shift is, and how distant the invasion and barbarism of October 7 has become in a great many Western minds.
    Labour, the SNP and the Conservatives fought like cats about the wording of their various amendments to condemn Israel, the main difference between them appearing to be a decision by the Scottish Nationalists to bizarrely claim that Palestinians were enduring collective punishment.
    The Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was so exercised by the question of what Parliament ought to tell Israel to do that he broke convention, upending constitutional norms, picking the Labour amendment for a vote when he wasn’t meant to.
    The threat of physical intimidation of MPs by extreme activists also weighed on him. Meanwhile, outside a mob was busy beaming “from the river to the sea” onto Big Ben. No one, unsurprisingly, was beaming: “release the hostages” – the only surefire way for the war to end immediately.
    It is, in short, as if the actual events of October 7 are simply ceasing to exist outside of Israel – as if Hamas’s actions, and the terrorist group’s decades of terror and abuse of its own people, the careful, obsessive hoarding of UN funds and aid that allowed it to carefully construct its ornate and nightmarishly extensive terror infrastructure, have now been almost totally forgotten.
    Calls for a “ceasefire”, always ludicrous, have morphed into utterly mainstream accusations of Israeli “genocide”. Making comparisons between Israel and Israelis and Nazi Germany and the Nazis is a key plank in the IHRA definition of “anti-Semitism”, but it is widely accepted nonetheless because, in too many people’s heart of hearts, it is felt to be true.
    Some say that Hamas, one of the most vicious and ambitious terror mobs the post-war world has known, has “won the propaganda war”. But that is to imply two false things: one, that there was some kind of equal war of words between Hamas and Israel that the latter has simply performed worse at, and two, that there was a case at all for Hamas to credibly prosecute.
    The truth is that Hamas knew all along that, because of the power of anti-Semitism masquerading as anti-Zionism, the world would end up siding with it, either explicitly or implicitly.
    This has now seen politicians and international bodies pulling together to try to stop Israel finishing its job, and rewarding the Palestinian cause with talk of unilaterally recognising a state and, as President Biden strangely chose to do last week, reasserting the position, nixed by Donald Trump, that Israeli settlements are illegal.
    What Hamas did on October 7 merits the very harshest punishment.
    But as one wit put it a few months back, if Israel didn’t care about civilian lives, the war would have been over on October 8.

    When it attacked Israel Hamas knew EXACTLY what it was doing and had already primed it’s propaganda machine ready to go.

    Almost before the Israeli response had got going, outlandish claims of civilian casualties, such as the “500 killed in Israeli bombing of hospital” which actually turned out to be one of Hamas’s own mis-fired missiles impacting in the hospital car park and causeing next to no damage at all, were being made.
    Does no one query the casualty figures released by the Hamas controlled Gazan authorities?

    The pro-terrorist response here in the UK was also ramped up so quickly one wonders how much advance warning of an oncoming “terrorist spectacular” the organisers had of the event.

    Hamas has used the people of Gaza as “Human Shields”, its self a war crime, for decades.

    And what of those people of Gaza?
    A high proportion of them not only openly support Hamas, but were happy to not only celebrate the attack, but some even took part in the snatching of Israelit hostages.

    And what of the children of Gaza?
    Those same children praised by their parants as future and past martyrs? Brainwashed into a vitriolic hatred of Israel by schools funded by the UNHCR.

    Israel’s response may be more than Hamas expected, but it was they, supported as they are by a large section of the Gazan population, who sowed the seeds of the whirlwind they are now harvesting.

    1. I stand with Israel.
      Hamas only want to provoke a response to get dead babies, which they realise does better for them than dead Israeli soldiers.
      Israel should consider targetted assassination of all individuals in Hamas who have any authority. How to do that, I don’t know, but they are clever folk, and getting their backs shoved up against the wall provides motivation.

  36. That was a good burst of called changes and plain hunt doubles with covering tenor. Off to Chichester now to see offspring and grand-offspring.

  38. ‘Morning All

    Bitter ,bitter medley

    https://twitter.com/Zarathrust4/status/1758193782200168702?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/110c9c5ef4e96bfe1cb90ac1d543335d9c4e39d077842d0f9f86f1bdcff762df.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/50f484e41f6e4cab863d67f123706268ff4e118614dc9bb44a8ebd3a4821ea2c.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cec2b8fc24f3d98193308ef0f08c45c2dc365322cea524fb3d01d7e817de8116.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25792f1641a8b0313f997bcbf98a6ab70d1b8efc6fe01a233a423f918fa020f4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/679b7334cf0d144109ff080fe02a4a2a4d45c1463249d78646af245b8a604127.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3afa0ae363969ac25fc67513aec5a3d3d5bfa9a2bda68517acc6d40824e64e03.jpg

    1. Universities are, apparently, saying that the best candidate for the job is racist. Of course they would, because those spouting this sort of drivel can’t actually do anything of worth.

      Quite simply, complex systems will not survive diversity. The stupider the people hired – for the diversity – the less reliable those systems will become until they simply don’t work.

      There’s a film about this – Idiocracy. At the time it was thought funny, but it’s sadly true. The state keeps penalising the intelligent and rewarding the failures.

  39. Medley 2

    Katie on the ONS

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TEHMpk8uV0

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c9424832412b5abd930ebc62921ad82639c5cf6a07830fe5280c5c5b855d051.jpg

    https://i0.wp.com/uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd1376fa0a58b59e5469b442409d94365dc3bd592c2b358701187ab07eec4c16.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b20a62459865ce1667c5fc9dc496645a3260b2a0e68f620fb384b285956333b8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9ef8bbd844defbdfe9898c805a0fd6044883bc7cfb78a8fec8d590264912b03a.png

    Clever politicians……….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66d07888cff9ad9a9e622c3337a77e60bc6ca70de842882da7b6e6815928265a.jpg

    1. I bet they hate Katie.
      But if lies such as these continue it needs to be said..
      Well done Katie.

    2. I am looking forward to the inevitable day when their methodology changes totally backfire on them, and something shatters the narrative that they are trying to promulgate and shows them up for the liars that they are.

    3. Katie Hopkins is right in the above video clip. Lies, damned lies and the manipulation of statistics ….

      No wonder she is vilified by the MSM and PTB.

  40. Another genius idea from our world-beating Civil Service…Bring back Steptoe & Son to collect all unwanted stuff and keep Hercules employed!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ca03bb3288b7c55e5c1dab96fbeb1d22ed0f8a3dc3364c8647408f917176864.jpg

    Shoppers face £1bn ‘toaster tax’ under plans for new set of net zero rules

    Defra unveils plans to require larger shops to ‘take back’ used electrical items such as toasters for recycling even if bought elsewhere

    Edward Malnick, SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR
    24 February 2024 • 8:30pm

    Shoppers face a £1 billion “toaster tax” under plans for a new set of net zero rules, retailers and Conservative MPs have warned.

    The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has unveiled plans to require larger shops to “take back” used electrical items such as toasters for recycling, even if the items were bought elsewhere.

    The plans would also see online and high street retailers required to provide a “free of charge collection on delivery service” under which they would have to take away a customer’s old appliance, such as a washing machine, television or fridge, if they were delivering a new one.

    Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told The Telegraph that the new requirements could cost firms “£1 billion or more” per year – a figure that would be passed on to consumers via higher prices.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/24/toasters-net-zero-defra-environment-eco-tax-retailers-curry/#comment

    **********************

    Dan Druff
    13 HRS AGO
    Cut the civil service in half. They’ll be fewer of them to dream up this rubbish. They’ll be fewer civil service pensions to pay too. The President of Argentina had the right idea.

    Donald Mackay
    12 HRS AGO
    Reply to Dan Druff
    Personally, I would cut every civil servant in half. 😉

  41. Another genius idea from our world-beating Civil Service…Bring back Steptoe & Son to collect all unwanted stuff and keep Hercules employed!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ca03bb3288b7c55e5c1dab96fbeb1d22ed0f8a3dc3364c8647408f917176864.jpg

    Shoppers face £1bn ‘toaster tax’ under plans for new set of net zero rules

    Defra unveils plans to require larger shops to ‘take back’ used electrical items such as toasters for recycling even if bought elsewhere

    Edward Malnick, SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR
    24 February 2024 • 8:30pm

    Shoppers face a £1 billion “toaster tax” under plans for a new set of net zero rules, retailers and Conservative MPs have warned.

    The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has unveiled plans to require larger shops to “take back” used electrical items such as toasters for recycling, even if the items were bought elsewhere.

    The plans would also see online and high street retailers required to provide a “free of charge collection on delivery service” under which they would have to take away a customer’s old appliance, such as a washing machine, television or fridge, if they were delivering a new one.

    Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told The Telegraph that the new requirements could cost firms “£1 billion or more” per year – a figure that would be passed on to consumers via higher prices.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/24/toasters-net-zero-defra-environment-eco-tax-retailers-curry/#comment

    **********************

    Dan Druff
    13 HRS AGO
    Cut the civil service in half. They’ll be fewer of them to dream up this rubbish. They’ll be fewer civil service pensions to pay too. The President of Argentina had the right idea.

    Donald Mackay
    12 HRS AGO
    Reply to Dan Druff
    Personally, I would cut every civil servant in half. 😉

  42. Big Cat just launched himself off me, leaving behind a cloud of the finest imaginable cat hairs – like a moulting rocket. Cat hair every place now, much stuck to my face. Argh!

      1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/OFKPO-Electric-Remover-Professional-Grooming/dp/B07BN5WZ9L/ref=sr_1_34?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.79KkJKQKZpUdGSoyfgWPyrTgqTKZHzY7q8t7XmigIkjyt-YUhbGmjJHgPXRqW-2zq7PJstyuBfnXj4HaAtbrtF0hY0SP47IoPqzNGadwnVYRaq39NKbxXfvXmjBM8OOpN5tSb7cClvdZEYx5aCDfJfliJ6G42rfN74K9eMaC-n7bXs4U6L8qicqgq2riTs5rHLbgHawEEwbUFq37LXMBi9I8Ul43i0EGlHcGnh2rxJ3E5QdgwJ7FrXxQBbsjzay52uwF4LqU-RGh8w2Ru5c7b6Dhiflwb86stffR03nXOpw.dah4eRrQRkf-4k0RqNoQcTaKjjNl48zxKJTXiVDyVkM&dib_tag=se&keywords=cat+hair+hoover&qid=1708861488&sr=8-34

        1. Clearly you do not have a cat!!! G & P would be out of the door before one could say “You’ll love this.”

          1. I have had cats. Not a lot of meat on them though.

            There are also defluffing machines that you put the cat inside. A bit like Schridingers box but with a window.

    2. https://www.amazon.co.uk/OFKPO-Electric-Remover-Professional-Grooming/dp/B07BN5WZ9L/ref=sr_1_34?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.79KkJKQKZpUdGSoyfgWPyrTgqTKZHzY7q8t7XmigIkjyt-YUhbGmjJHgPXRqW-2zq7PJstyuBfnXj4HaAtbrtF0hY0SP47IoPqzNGadwnVYRaq39NKbxXfvXmjBM8OOpN5tSb7cClvdZEYx5aCDfJfliJ6G42rfN74K9eMaC-n7bXs4U6L8qicqgq2riTs5rHLbgHawEEwbUFq37LXMBi9I8Ul43i0EGlHcGnh2rxJ3E5QdgwJ7FrXxQBbsjzay52uwF4LqU-RGh8w2Ru5c7b6Dhiflwb86stffR03nXOpw.dah4eRrQRkf-4k0RqNoQcTaKjjNl48zxKJTXiVDyVkM&dib_tag=se&keywords=cat+hair+hoover&qid=1708861488&sr=8-34

  45. I see that the science lesson that I gave yesterday has provoked some controversy (always the last thing on my mind). I was merely repeating something that someone had said on the PM programme , and that Evan Davies had not questioned. (Subtext for the hard of thinking: the fact that such confusion should gain currency is symptomatic of the premature specialisation that is a weakness of our education system. I’m sure that Evan has a very nice arts degree. I’m also certain that he hasn’t opened a science book since he was fifteen.)

    Must rush – those letters to the Telegraph don’t write themselves.

    2. Yer ’tis:

      Windrush realities
      SIR – Christopher Howse (Comment, February 18) repeats the myth – no doubt in good faith – that in 1948 the Empire Windrush brought immigrants to this country to do the work that the British would not do. The truth is actually rather more complicated.

      After the Second World War, America clamped down on immigration from the West Indies. Cold, poor Britain was very much the second-best choice as a destination. When the Empire Windrush, a chartered troop carrier, docked in Kingston, Jamaica on its way back to Britain, it was nearly empty of passengers. Her enterprising proprietors put an advertisement in the local press, offering cheap passages to the motherland.

      Those who came, and the many that followed them, were not invited here. Britain had been rendered poor by the war, and many necessities were rationed. It is true that London Transport later set up a recruitment centre in Barbados, but that was at the request of the island’s government, as unemployment was high there.

      Enoch Powell, then the health secretary, famously recruited nurses from the West Indies. Less famously, they came here to be trained, but were then supposed to take their skills back home.

      None of this is to denigrate those who did come to this country. However, let us not delude ourselves that our crowded island has ever been short of people.

      Joseph B Fox
      Redhill, Surrey

      1. Windrush realities

        SIR – Christopher Howse (Comment, February 18)
        repeats the myth – no doubt in good faith – that in 1948 the Empire
        Windrush brought immigrants to this country to do the work that the
        British would not do. The truth is actually rather more complicated.

        After
        the Second World War, America clamped down on immigration from the West
        Indies. Cold, poor Britain was very much the second-best choice as a
        destination. When the Empire Windrush, a chartered troop carrier, docked
        in Kingston, Jamaica on its way back to Britain, it was nearly empty of
        passengers. Her enterprising proprietors put an advertisement in the
        local press, offering cheap passages to the motherland.

        Those who
        came, and the many that followed them, were not invited here. Britain
        had been rendered poor by the war, and many necessities were rationed.
        It is true that London Transport later set up a recruitment centre in
        Barbados, but that was at the request of the island’s government, as
        unemployment was high there.

        Enoch Powell, then the health
        secretary, famously recruited nurses from the West Indies. Less
        famously, they came here to be trained, but were then supposed to take
        their skills back home.

        None of this is to denigrate those who did
        come to this country. However, let us not delude ourselves that our
        crowded island has ever been short of people.

        Joseph B Fox
        Redhill, Surrey

    3. It’s in the poor immigrant people’s very nature so we can’t and mustn’t blame them. And raping young girls and using machetes and knives is part of their culture so we must make allowances and sympathise with them. In fact we must even try to empathise with them.

      (This could come from the manifestos of Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Lib Dumbs)

      This fable which most of us know well illustrates the point:

      A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: “I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s my character.”

      1. Just shows the power acquired by the vulnerable aged population in controlling unwelome crowds in city spaces when they activate their mobility scooters.

        Mobility scooters can easily be transformed from stun mode to kill by activating them from pavement to road use.

    6. All Swedes speak English as if they have a large portion of hot potato in their mouth, thereby sounding posh. The inflexions don’t help.

    2. I thought this was the finest XI ever to leave our shores. “Bazball” (whatever that is) and all that…

  48. It had to happen.

    Lee Anderson suspension row provokes vitriolic left-wing attacks as Keir Starmer accuses Tories of harbouring ‘extremists’ and Muslim Council of Britain demands probe into party’s ‘structural Islamophobia’

      1. Im waiting for the false flag “Far Right” attack on innocent (hah!) Moslems

        and it seems I’m not alone

        “Any minute now some pissed up fuckwit is going to put a sausage on a mosque door handle and it will be told as if it were the worst crime against Muslims in British history. Lee Anderson will have 9 off the cuff BBC documentaries dedicated to blaming him for spurring it on with his “islamophobic” rhetoric. Something violent and massively disproportionate will happen in retaliation to the hate sausage which the MSM will completely ignore. The sausage day will be known as islamophopia awareness day for the rest of time and all sausages will be banned in Britain. Shamima Begum will be brought back to the UK as a collective punishment and given a top civil service job, order all churches to be filled to the brim with homosexuals and burned to the ground. The union flag will be banned and replaced with a Boko haram and Zarah Sultana approved alternative. All statues and buildings created by non islamic architects will be destroyed and replaced with mosques. There will be no Guardian headline blaming Tommy Robinson. There will be no Guardian . There will be no Tommy Robinson, but the left will have won. The left will be happy. Finally they beat the far right.”

        1. Yet the Left never, ever win. They’re the perennial cartoon villain. They keep coming up with ever more destructive, misery creating nonsense, they keep making life worse and it always backfires through infighting, egotism, a desperate crushing demand for ever more rules, regulation, restriction until they turn on themselves.

          Most usually Left wingery ends in war. In either case, millions die. The Left don’t care. Their ends justify their means.

    3. The Muslim Council of Britain can stuff their demands where the sun doesn’t shine; and where most of their heads reside.

      1. Islam itself is specifically designed to prevent all criticism of it, upon pain of death if need be.

  49. Is it not about time, that the UK government demanded recompense for the families of English/British people taken into
    slavery by the then Barbary Pirates.

    According to Robert Davis, author of Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters, between 1 million and 1.2 million Europeans were
    captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and The Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_on_the_Barbary_Coast

  50. Can anyone explain to me why the bomb found in a Plymouth back garden is being referred to as a ‘Nazi bomb’?

    2. I wondered that too.

      To keep the fact that the word ‘Nazi’ is associated with Bad Things uppermost in people’s minds.

  51. Wordle 981 6/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟨🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Not one of my best Wordle scores today – I only just made it in six.

    Anyhow, Good Morning, chums. Up very late today, but it’s still dry, so off to the garden now to do some weeding. Enjoy your day.

      1. Four here

        Wordle 981 4/6

        ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
        🟨🟨🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  52. Wordle 981 6/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟨🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Not one of my best Wordle scores today – I only just made it in six.

    Anyhow, Good Morning, chums. Up very late today, but it’s still dry, so off to the garden now to do some weeding. Enjoy your day.

  53. I see that certain stories in the Daily Mail are behind a pay wall again. I assume most of you can’t access this particular story by Peter Hitchens because you wont have a VPN. Therefore, I reproduce it here in full.

    PETER HITCHENS: Who began this filthy war? Why didn’t we side with democracy against the Kiev mob?

    It is ten years, not two years, since the war in Ukraine began. And once you have grasped that, you can begin to think clearly about it. What is Britain’s interest in this conflict? Why do so many in politics and the media cheer for carnage that has devastated Ukraine, the country they claim to love and admire? What has Ukraine gained from it? What can Ukraine and its people possibly gain from it?

    I ask only that you use your minds instead of your emotions. Let us begin with what happened ten years ago. It ought to be shocking.

    In 2014, Ukraine had a crude but functioning democracy. This worked because the country was pretty evenly divided between its east and its west. Power swung from one side to the other, and in 2010 Viktor Yanukovych won the presidential election with 12.5 million votes, beating his nearest rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, who won 11.6 million.

    Unlike the previous election in 2004, nobody seriously disputed the result. So in February 2014, Yanukovych was the lawful head of state, with two years to run.

    If we believe, as we all say we do, in democracy, then this is a near-sacred fact. The widespread and justified disgust over the invasion of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, is based on the belief that power rests on ballots, not on force.

    There is no clearer distinction between democracies and the rest. The losers must respect the result. If they dispute it, they must use lawful methods. But in general if they do not like whoever is in power, they must wait till the next election.

    There is hardly a politician or a commentator in Britain who has not said exactly this at some time in his or her life. It is called ‘losers’ consent’. Our ordered lives depend on it and we cannot betray it here or abroad.

    But now we come to the big exception. In February 2014, a violent mob infiltrated and came to dominate what had originally been genuine democratic protests in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

    There is much that is murky about these bitter days, including the mysterious shootings of members of the crowd. Let us just say that there is a serious dispute about who was responsible, which has yet to be resolved.

    In a leaked (and undenied) phone conversation, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, that there was ‘stronger and stronger understanding’ that ‘behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition’.

    A UN report (published on July 15, 2014) concluded that 103 protesters and 20 police officers died in these events. I believe at least some of the protesters were armed, and the deaths of 20 policemen suggest some pretty heavy violence on the side of the protesters.

    In the midst of all this bloodshed, two serious efforts were made to reach a peaceful, lawful outcome. The first was wrecked, perhaps deliberately, when protesters responded to it on Tuesday, February 18, by setting fire to Yanukovych’s party HQ. On the night of Thursday, February 20, the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France flew to Kiev to broker a deal with the embattled Ukrainian President.

    On February 21, that deal was signed by the President, by three senior members of the anti-Yanukovych opposition and witnessed by the three EU ministers.

    Yanukovych offered a rewrite of the constitution to suit the opposition; a new government; early presidential elections (no later than December 2014); and an impartial probe into the violence (which there has never been). All sides renounced the use of force.

    But that Friday evening, the deal was put to the crowd in the Maidan, an unelected body with no constitutional or democratic authority. They certainly did not represent the eastern part of the country.

    Their chieftains rejected it and threatened to ‘take arms and go’ to Yanukovych’s residence if he did not step down by the next morning. The opposition leaders who had signed the deal crumbled, and made no effort to defend it against the yelling anger of the crowd.
    Yanukovych, whose security protection had melted away, left Kiev. But he did not resign and he did not leave the country. A recent book by the highly respected Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy shows beyond doubt that the elected President was still in office and in Ukraine when parliament voted to remove him. The vote was unlawful, since MPs lacked the votes needed to do so under the constitution. But they went ahead anyway.

    So anti-democratic violence was followed by lawlessness. The offer of early elections was brushed aside (did the mob fear their faction would lose them?). Thus a mob overthrew a legitimate head of state. And here comes the shocking test. Western nations, including Britain, should have condemned this action. They are normally vigilant defenders of law and democracy all over the world, are they not? But in this case, they condoned the coup.

    The then Foreign Secretary, William Hague, made a wholly inaccurate statement to the House of Commons on March 4, 2014. He said that Yanukovych was removed ‘by the very large majorities required under the constitution’. This is simply untrue. And so the future Lord Hague’s next assertion that ‘it is wrong to question the legitimacy of the new authorities’ seriously misled Parliament.

    I took this up with Lord Hague. After it became plain he had no good defence of his actions, he stopped replying to me and fell silent. Pathetically, an awkward letter I sent to his official address was returned to me adorned with a sticker saying he was not known there. If we had a proper Opposition in this country, he would never have been able to get away with this. But we do not.

    The events of February 2014 split Ukraine and began a filthy little war in the east of the country in which (among other tragedies and horrors) many civilians died at the hands of the Ukrainian army. The disgusting Russian invasion two years ago, indefensible and barbaric, was the second stage of the war, not the start of it.

    Of course, I do not know who if anyone was behind the overthrow of Yanukovych. All kinds of Western politicians and intelligence types were hanging around Kiev at the time. And the West blatantly betrayed its own principles to condone and forgive the nasty event. But that of course does not prove that any Western nation backed the coup against Yanukovych.

    Even so, it is my view that any outside force which did support that putsch is just as guilty of aggression and warmongering as Russia’s Putin is. Think of that as you listen to all those loud, safe voices demanding that we keep on fuelling this war, in which Ukrainians die daily for democratic principles we do not, in fact, support.

    1. Even so, it is my view that any outside force which did support that putsch is just as guilty of aggression and warmongering as Russia’s Putin is.

      The CIA for those in doubt!

    2. A good start but there seemed to be considerable evidence [a lot of it now vanished] that the USA and EU were complicit in fanning the flames of mob unrest? Hague should hang his head in shame! if nothing else we can but hope that the idiot king might read that article before commenting again!

      1. No mention of the EU trade deal and associate membership agreement that Yanukovych refused to sign, an action which reputedly led to the violence.

      1. And Biden and the repulsive Boris Johnson scuppered the talks which attempted avoid the war by making promises of military and financial support to the corrupt Zelensky.

      1. Don’t forget to check if your library service subscribes to Press Reader, you can read it for free.

      2. Me too. A sub to the Telegraph is more than enough and the Mail is not a paper I would ever subscribe to, it’s a rag.

  54. 383896+ up ticks,

    Bodyguards for MPs as extremism threat rises

    Should read,

    Bodyguards for MPs as extremism threat rises, with each incoming tide.
    I would say regarding these politico’s & their current supporters
    the best form of protection would be
    voluntary incarceration in say, Belmarsh.

      1. 383896+ up ticks,

        Afternoon SJ,

        That can only be achieved once war has been declared officially, as it should have been on the twenty fifth
        of June 2016.

        1. Turn her to face a white wall’

          Turn off the lights

          Shine a torch at her face

          The shadow on the wall will show will be s ckirp (Tpyo, sorry)

    3. Who are the genocide mongers when Hamas declares that its aim to to exterminate all Jews and Israel declares that it does not wish to exterminate all Muslims but it wishes to destroy its enemies that attack, behead, rape and take hostages from within its own country.

      I cannot understand why this point isn’t made over and over again in the MSM by the PTB. And now that Anderson has been sacked for saying what most people believe we can see that the Conservative Party as well as Labour have capitulated completely to Islam.

    4. A screaming, angry thug who’s religion regularly blows people up, stabs them accuses others of genocide?

      Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

      And really, did the security doorman really think a bunch of muslim, bearded tracky wearing chavs were Conservatives?

    1. She is ok, I’ve seen her very recently on TCW… she may be taking a break from social media whilst she gets on with her projects. We are in touch from time to time.

    2. She gave an upvote to one of my comments on TCW yesterday so she is clearly of very sound mind!

  59. In response to the Windrush letter…

    In June of last year, Ed West wrote an article ‘The Windrush myth’ for The Spectator. Here’s the relevant part.

    The story of the Windrush is now commemorated by Laura Serrant’s poem, You Called…and We Came. The National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station, unveiled last year, features the words of that poem, with the lines:

    ‘Remember… you called.
    Remember… you called
    YOU. Called.
    Remember, it was us, who came.’

    Even London schools have been emailing parents to commemorate those ‘answering the call from the British government to work in the NHS, on public transport and in the Post Office’. It is the story of the post-war imperial subjects who answered the appeal of the mother country.

    And yet… it’s not quite true.

    The Windrush began its historic journey from Kingston to Tilbury on 24 May 1948, with several hundred West Indian men and one stowaway woman. Also on board were a group of Poles who had circumnavigated the globe during the war, some of these survivors having escaped from Siberia to India, onto Palestine and then Mexico. The ship’s operator had expected to leave Jamaica under capacity and so offered passage at half price; many local men took the opportunity.

    Far from calling them, the British government was alarmed by the news. A Privy Council memo sent to the Colonial Office on 15 June stated that the government should not help the migrants: ‘Otherwise there might be a real danger that successful efforts to secure adequate conditions of these men on arrival might actually encourage a further influx.’

    Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones replied: ‘These people have British passports and they must be allowed to land.’ But, he added confidently: ‘They won’t last one winter in England.’ Indeed, Britain had recently endured some very harsh winters.

    The Ministry of Labour was also unhappy about the arrival of the Jamaican men, minister George Isaacs warning that if they attempted to find work in areas of serious unemployment ‘there will be trouble eventually’. He said: ‘The arrival of these substantial numbers of men under no organised arrangement is bound to result in considerable difficulty and disappointment. I hope no encouragement will be given to others to follow their example.’

    Soon afterwards, 11 concerned Labour MPs wrote to Prime Minister Clement Attlee stating that the government should ‘by legislation if necessary, control immigration in the political, social, economic and fiscal interests of our people…In our opinion such legislation or administration action would be almost universally approved by our people.’ The letter was sent on 22 June; that same day the Windrush arrived at Tilbury.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-windrush-myth/

    2. I’m old enough to remember the 1947 Winter where the snow came up to this 3-year-old boy’s chest and it was cold, bloody cold,, despite the siren suit I was encased in.

    3. I’m old enough to remember the 1947 Winter where the snow came up to this 3-year-old boy’s chest and it was cold, bloody cold,, despite the siren suit I was encased in.

    4. ‘Remember… you called.
      Remember… you called
      YOU. Called.
      Remember, it was us, who came.’

      No, it turns out you weren’t invited. Can’t you hear Kingston calling you back.

  60. Brunch
    Sausagemeat patty with added salt white pepper and sage
    Thin sliced Double Gloucester
    Fried Egg
    Two slices of rye sourdough
    Heaven,McDonalds eat your heart out

    1. ‘These people have British passports…’

      The British Nationality Act, the great gift of Attlee, along with the NHS and British Railways.

  62. Lee Anderson was not trying to be Islamophobic, says Oliver Dowden
    The Deputy Prime Minister said Mr Anderson would have been able to keep the whip and stay in the Conservative Party if he had apologised
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/25/lee-anderson-not-islamophobic-sadiq-khan-says-oliver-dowden/

    BTL

    If ‘phobia’ is a suffix meaning an unjustifiable fear of something what is the word for a justifiable fear of something?

    It looks to me that by their treatment of Lee Anderson Sunak and many in the Conservative Party have clearly shown that they are completely terrified of Islam.

    Is this a phobia or something else?

    1. The closer a Muslim adheres to the Islamic faith the more dangerous they become to non Muslims. For a non-believer it is perfectly rational to fear an Islamic takeover.

    3. Of what possible value is an insincere apology?

      Lee Anderson meant what he said, what he said is true and if he apologised he would be a hypocrite.

      But that’s what the Conservative Party wants – MPs who are hypocrites.

        2. I can’t understand it at all why all the BTLiners are so gung-ho about the provocation. Just don’t get it.

    6. Doing all they can to provoke Russia and when it elicits the desired response they yell, “Unprovoked attack”! Just like Hamas.

    8. Then Putin will hit a target outside Ukraine in retaliation, and they will shout “Russia wants to invade Europe!” and WW3 will kick off?
      They did warn us that they wanted three world wars.

  64. Why has our Parliament capitulated to an alien religious sect so quickly .. a platform infused by third world Islam .. by people who identify as Muslims, who are hell bent on causing as much trouble as the Roman Catholics and Protestants used to do in Northern Island ?

  66. EXCLUSIVEWe kicked squatters out of our £170k flat… but then police arrested US and helped THEM move back in – we’re sick with rage

    Siarhei and Aleh Pakrouski face jail for ‘defending their property’ in Barcelona

    Squatters moved in on December 31 and refused to leave after 24 hours

    The brothers have criticised Spain’s property laws that make it hard to evict

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13113377/Squatters-170k-flat-brothers-arrested-Barcelona-Spain.html

  67. Several hours of a recent power cut followed several days later by a worrying amount of smoke emanating from my electric doser emphasised my need for a manual grinder that I could use in an emergency.

    I bought this single barrel manual machine that is more than capable of delivering two shots. Here it is as packaged showing the barrel and manual activator:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9dc6bc61a71ad88f76ab272b072764ff6fe70fba2af72e65bc0ca027da91614.jpg

    However, as with a barrel of an automatic weapon, I would need to be able to quicky disassemble, clean and reassemble it to maintain the accuracy of my shots.

    I have the K2 barrel and luckily found this short video that explains the complete teardown and rebuild to keep up my shot accuracy and efficiency:

    https://youtube.com/shorts/LRza06ohomw?si=K6tmhmZK1GxEftwS

    1. A “K2”? Otherwise known as a Godwin-Austen?

      I really do not have a clue what your device is for!

  68. It won’t happen but wouldn’t it be nice if Italy beat France at rugby this afternoon!

    1. The political class forced the muslim on us, destablised our entire society and ruined this country in welfare, debt, waste and tax. Every single problem we have is down to a malicious, vicious government intent on making us poorer, unhappier and without a nation. This is an act of absolute treason.

      1. And if anyone in the Conservative Party dares to tell the truth about Islam and the Mayor of London he is sacked.

        Nappies and brown trousers or skirts or dresses needed for the front bench of the government.

  72. Oh bugger!
    After a several hours in the shed up the “garden” sorting out a bit more scrap, for weighing in, I’ve come in to find that I’ve somehow gone back to yesterday’s page so I’ve lost most of today’s comments.
    Once the fog shifted, it’s been quite a decent day and even got up to 3°C!!
    However, the sun’s dipped below the hillside opposite so it’s about to drop rapidly.

  73. The daffs are looking good, although the crocuses are on their way out:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/92b4e80c5cb0596ccb7f529b0ac10f39279808817ed9b91f5c1de3e367715c31.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae3dd060d064349a37c3cdb7467da4ad426bb1fd5067e60b6f2ba18c6efa27db.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb0a870430f293641185e123d5af4676fb32ad9d6f0899df745edaa3a430701c.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/114b6e7a7ce13c94923d8d7ddb41eb09cdd2d10b2eb28d3e837d770be274baf1.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e54e7e0e916251436ad9abc813b7c7ec7f712de81752fa57f1d17c6094b9818c.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f84c0c785b0b10537f2a51cd0f3a6fbbb10cd54a8eea1b300db37b86b4dd1ad.jpg

          1. When we had hem built, we had heating cables included. Scrape the snow off, and if there’s ice, a few minuted with the warmer and reduced risk of skidding & falling (one of SWMBOs specialities, anyway)

    3. I’ve a load of cheap bulbs planted in the verge down towards Cromford which have been on the verge of blossoming for the past week, but still no blooms.
      Got some tulips too.

  74. Just started to sort out Mother’s papers in the hope of finding the copies of the Power of Attorney I paid for… naturally, in the envelope which was the last thing I found… Now need to organise the papers & see what it is needs done to sort out her affairs.
    Man, it’s a daunting task 🙁

    1. A meeting with her bank most likely to give you authority to use her accounts, not sure how they do that with ex pats.

      1. Have the bank sorted, but the stockbroker, pensions, you name it.
        I hoped to visit one pension company next time we’re in the UK, but they no longer have physical premises, so it all has to be done by post – and I have to send certified copies of passport & other documents as proof of my exitence. Each certified copy costs about £20…

          1. Her house only got internet when we stayed there to prepare for selling – we had it fitted.

          2. Have you had to deal with the post office yet? We were doing great guns with mother in laws power of attorney stuff until we met the intractable post office.
            Even though you have power of attorney, you cannot get her mail redirected unless you can show us proof of your home address. Picture ID such as passports and driving licenses were not enough, they wanted to see a utility bill.
            I don’t know about you but we always carry a copy of our gas bill with us when we travel!

          3. The billing by Internet is a problem, and it’s all in Weegie anyway, which absolutely flummoxes them.

    2. My sister and I have asked for PoA over my mother. She refuses to at every step. Thinks we’re going to evict her. I couldn’t care less about the wretched woman but she can’t complain that no one calls when she’s in hospital is she doesn’t tell us she is.

      1. You need to do it whilst she still ‘has capacity’, ie hasn’t gone gaga. I think it gets rather more difficult after that. However, if she doesn’t agree to sign there is not much you can do.

      2. You need to do it whilst she still ‘has capacity’, ie hasn’t gone gaga. I think it gets rather more difficult after that. However, if she doesn’t agree to sign there is not much you can do.

      3. My mum hated giving me something by the name of “Power of Atttorney”, as if I were taking something away from her. “Oh, I’m sure that as you’re my next of kin everything will be fine” she said, airily. In the end she did, which gave me peace of mind, but in the final analysis it wasn’t needed because after my father died back in 1969 she opened a joint account with my name on it as well so that in the event of any illness I could pay her bills for her. The sale of her house went through that account as well.

    1. Try googling ‘subsidy cost of windmills’.

      You’ll get 30-40 *pages* of drivel and lies and spin but no truth. No facts.

  77. ‘Night All

    Finish with some lighter stuff

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e75d21f584097f03a0477e2a07ee53694c96394ebde0b9687494802a783cde5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7a1881c2207efbd7233029df96a8625abe60a8ebfc1a219ffea43b8cd088078.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9852170fc120bb11157b7fa520d09fcceecc373f1273d1c5a2a1b38e01eb4766.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/176a73ef57b3d245e6889df0fd9753395e350b8299110e996d288e698cdb8f5d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d3bb2f6d2f1caac34f5e4e16ff38f2615e7c4ac0e9ea59c96b64014c39717b8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/097d3f70dbf88c8e5438a0c56af56a42e56c7e385d17cc5066ce5e67f754aab3.png

    2. The Chihuahua vs muffin test would be a good Captcha test to verify that you are not a computer.

  79. A forged Par Four!

    Wordle 981 4/6
    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Par is good

      Wordle 981 4/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. A dastardly 5.

      Wordle 981 5/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟨🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Also par.

      Wordle 981 4/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  80. The UK is much closer to blackouts than anyone dares to admit

    It won’t take an enemy power to overwhelm the National Grid

    ROSS CLARK
    25 February 2024 • 7:00am

    Of all the problems with electric cars, perhaps the least expected was the revelation that some home charging points provide a potential point of weakness for malign foreign powers to interfere with our National Grid. Last week, the Office for Product Safety and Standards ordered the company Wallbox to stop selling its Copper SB chargers because hackers could potentially access the chargers and incapacitate the grid by such means as suddenly turning on thousands of chargers full-pelt at the same time.

    But do we really need a foreign power to crash our electricity grid when we are quite capable of inflicting it on ourselves? We are heading for a big electricity crunch as it is. Whoever wins the general election, the next government will be committed to decarbonising the National Grid – by 2035 in the case of the Conservatives and by 2030 in the case of Labour. That means either closing all the gas power stations or fitting them with carbon capture and storage technology – which does not yet exist on scale in Britain and whose costs are likely to be massive. At the same time every single one of our existing nuclear power stations is currently due to reach the end of its life by 2035. If Hinkley C is delayed much beyond its latest estimated completion, we could end up with no nuclear at all.

    That could leave us trying to power the country pretty much with intermittent wind and solar energy alone – and this at a time when politicians want millions more of us to be driving electric cars and heating our homes with heat pumps, thus substantially increasing demand. How will we keep the lights on? One struggles to find satisfactory explanation from the National Grid ESO, which is trusted with this task.

    It has produced a vision for a winter’s day in 2035 which foresees massive amounts of energy being stored in the form of green hydrogen produced via the electrolysis of water – a technology which may not be ready by then. It also sees Britain importing around a quarter of its electricity. What happens if the countries we import it from are also short of renewable energy, it doesn’t say.

    But another large part of the picture seems to be “demand flexibility” – a polite term for rationing energy through smart meters, jacking up the price whenever supply is short. No wonder the Government seems keener than ever to force smart meters on us. The latest wheeze is to announce that, from next year the radio signal which are used to switch old-style electricity meters onto cheaper, night-time Economy 7 tariffs will be switched off, meaning that customers without a smart meter will always be charged the daytime tariff.

    The trouble is, smart meters aren’t working very well. A survey last month by Which? revealed that 40 per cent of consumers say they have had problems with the electricity company not receiving readings remotely. The Government admitted in December that 2.7 million out of 33 million smart meters are working in “dumb” mode. Ofgem has said that, in future, electricity companies will repair the meters for free rather than offering only a one year warranty.

    How devious it was to lumber customers with the cost of repairing smart meters when old style analogue meters were always the property of electricity companies and it was their responsibility to keep them in working order.

    But even if your meter is working, don’t be fooled by the claim that it will save you money. When we get “dynamic tariffs”, they are unlikely to be anything like Economy 7 where the daytime and nighttime prices are fixed and easy to understand. When the wind drops and the sun goes down, it will require eye-watering electricity prices to persuade enough people to turn off their appliances to avoid blackouts.

    It won’t take an enemy power to put us all in the dark – just energy customers doing normal things on a normal winter’s evening.

    Ross Clark is the author of ‘Not Zero’

    ***************************

    Phillip Bratby
    10 HRS AGO
    People who understand all this have been giving warnings for years. But politicians (PPEs, lawyers etc) know far more than engineers and physicists about how the grid works.

    Pete Taylor
    9 HRS AGO
    Worse than that. 12% of our electricity last year was imported from Europe via the undersea interconnectors. They’re supposed to be bidirectional.
    About 18% of our electricity is currently produced by nuclear power stations by 2030, not 2035, all these will be decommissioned and Hinckley Point will not be online due to delays. Whether you believe in climate change or not there’s a separate concept called energy security and with a shortfall of supply of 30% by 2030 we’ve lost that.
    Thereafter it gets worse. Dunkelflaute is a term for dark days with no wind. Such periods require alternative energy provision. It’s been revealed that the CCC (Climate Change Committee) so-called experts that advised Teresa May to put 2050 net-zero into UK law, based their backup energy provision on one year’s data with a 7-day long dunkelflaute. The Royal Society examined 37 years of data and identified many years of 50+ day long dunkelflaute periods. So the plans for alternative energy provision as we switch to wind and solar are woefully deficient. There’ll be electricity rationing and blackouts.
    Then there’s the UK’s plan to use EDF to build 6 nuclear reactors in total by 2050 when the cost for the first has risen from £10 billion to £46 billion and there has been and continue to be delays.
    I say EDF but essentially it’s the French government since EDF has been nationalised, and, of course, despite the agreed contract, the UK gov is now locked in a row with the French gov wrt who foots the increased costs. independent experts say there’s no chance of 6 nuclear reactors been built by 2050. With that and the fact that there’s a giant chasm in the provision of backup energy for grossly under-estimated dunkelflautes the UK does not have energy security. In layman’s terms we’re flooked. EDITED

    2. Tell this to the average HoC half-wit and he (or she…) will look at you as though you’ve just announced that water flows uphill.

    3. Back in 1989, I worked on the safety case for Hinckley C. Has it generated a single watt for sale yet? I don’t think so.

    5. When these blackouts occur, and they will, it’ll be because “malign foreign powers have interfered with our National Grid.”

    6. “The latest wheeze is to announce that, from next year the radio signal which are used to switch old-style electricity meters onto cheaper, night-time Economy 7 tariffs will be switched off, meaning that customers without a smart meter will always be charged the daytime tariff.”

      I’m not quite sure if that can be correct. As far as I’m aware our electricity meter has no radio, or any other connection, to our supplier, OVO. It has 3 mechanical dials, 1 for 7am to midnight, 1 (Economy 7) for midnight to 7am and 1 for combined total. We report online these figures on the 5th of each month.

      1. Mine’s digital, but it has the time on it and two readings for night and day. I am not aware of any radio link.

  82. HMS Mahratta (G 23).
    Destroyer (M-class)
    .
    Complement:
    236 officers and men (220 dead and 16 survivors).

    At 20.55 hours on 25th February 1944, HMS Mahratta (G 23) (LtCdr E.A.F. Drought, DSC, RN) was hit by a Gnat from U-990 (Hubert Nordheimer) about 280 miles from the North Cape, while escorting the stern sector of convoy JW-57. The destroyer exploded and sank within minutes. HMS Impulsive (D 11) (LtCdr P. Bekenn, RN) and HMS Wanderer (D 74) (LtCdr R.F. Whinney, DSC, RN) were quickly on the scene to pick up survivors, but only 16 survivors could be recovered from the freezing waters. The commander, ten officers and 209 ratings lost their lives.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-990 was sunk on 25th May 1944 in the Norwegian Sea north-west of Trondheim by depth charges from a British Liberator aircraft (59 Sqn RAF). 20 dead and 33 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/dd_m_hms_mahratta.jpg

  83. We had our boiler serviced last month , guess what , nothing , no heat in the radiators , but the pilot light is on , wondering whether the pump has died .

    Lit the fire in the living room , but the house feels cold . Drat and double drat.

    2. Try turning it off and then on again. You ought to be able to feel the pump with your hand to know if it is working (or put the tip of a screwdriver against a pipe and your ear to the handle. Is it affected by a thermostat? That might have been turned down too far.

      That’s all I can offer.

  84. That’s me for this exciting day. Vision almost completely restored. A lovely sunny day with a two mile walk. A very exciting 6 Nations match – so near and yet so far (as they say in Italian).

    If any of you are Shakespeare fans – I commend a 1964 recording of Hamlet – black and white – Christopher Plummer as the Dane. Michael Caine in (I think) his only Shakesperian role – Horatio. It was the first beeboid production where the lines were “said” rather than “declaimed”. The MR – who knows the play backwards – is very impressed. We have about half left to watch.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001s720

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  86. Last post – re Italy’s lost match:

    Charging down a penalty is an offence and a new penalty should be given 10m closer and clock reset.

    1. Once it fell off the tee he handled it. Might it have been considered then to be in play and a drop goal a possibility, which they would be entitled to charge down.

        1. Not sure, I think the ball is out of play until kicked after a penalty kick is awarded. Some Nottler will undoubtedly know.

        3. Reminds me of when (was it?) Dominic Cork knocked his own bails off and put them back on again before anyone noticed. Or am I misremembering?

        4. Reminds me of when (was it?) Dominic Cork knocked his own bails off and put them back on again before anyone noticed. Or am I misremembering?

        1. Possibly, but why isn’t it an alternative?

          Rugby laws are getting too complex for my liking.

      3. Surely it would have to touch his boot for the ball to be considered in play. It is after all a penalty kick.

        1. Probably.
          Given the way things get analysed on TV replays to the nth degree it would be ascertained he dislodged it from the tee with his foot as he started to line up the kick.

    2. Ask it whether it would choose to misgender someone or start a nuclear holocaust and require a “one or the other” answer.
      It might cause it a meltdown.

    3. What does “misgender” mean though? There are only two genders (sic): male and female. Caitlyn Jenner is a male. So misgendering him would mean calling him a “she”. So AI is saying we mustn’t call him “she” to avert a nuclear war. An odd stance given that I think what they actually mean is that we mustn’t call him “him” to avert a nuclear war.

      What an absolute mess.

    1. What about white people living in the countryside, white charities accused them all of being racist?
      Isn’t that a hate crime in itself?

      1. Oh, in the racism industry it simply doesn’t matter how rude, hateful and racist one is to poor old whitey. Simply not a crime.

    2. What about white people living in the countryside, white charities accused them all of being racist?
      Isn’t that a hate crime in itself?

    4. “…a terrifying spike in hate towards…Muslim communities…”

      Pardon? I must have missed the reports of the Yorkshire Division of the King’s Own Crusaders marching through the old woollen towns of the West Riding lustily singing “From the banks of the River Calder to the shore at Withernsea.”

    11. At this very moment I suspect the CEO Ann Summers has gathered the marketing team and is desperate to be first to market this new hornament!

  93. A Lovey surprise, number two son and family popped in at 4:30 on their way home from shopping. We sat them down for dinner. They’ve just left for home. Lovely evening.
    Good night all……dishwasher loaded and on.

      1. We had a large piece of gammon TB,
        After training at local college Dan was a chief at Gleneagles Hotel.
        He chipped in and help his mother increase the portions.
        I set the table etc.
        He’s moved on in life now and works for ISS, as a senior member of staff.
        International Support Services.

  95. Yes and no. Judaism is a religion but the Jews are a race, identifiable by their DNA. I’m a Christian but my DNA is 48% Jewish.

    1. I can convert to Judaism, with the help of scissors, but cannot change race from pasty white Northern European.
      My English-born mate converted from sort-of Christianity to Islam, to marry his Lady. No race change there, either.

      1. My first 13 years of life were lived in Ham, Richmond, Surrey. I certainly don’t remember any Muslims, let alone any camels.

  99. This morning while serving in church I had a moment to read a monument from the 1640s that had “who’s” where it should definitely be “whose”, since “who is” would not make sense in the context it was used. Now, I know that English spelling was not standardised until the nineteenth century but prior to that was grammar also a matter of personal preference? This error is of course literally carved in stone!

        1. Journey was fine thanks – Kenya was great! Long day though – I’m not normally an early bird but I’ve been up at 5 am the last few mornings and it’s catching up with me.

    2. I guess that not many stonemasons were entitled to the label ‘Oxon.’ in those days. Or possibly an oversight by his supervisor, Sue?

    6. The flexibility of the English language. Of course a number of words have changed and now the meaning of word is still being changed.

      1. The origins of the English language are interesting. At the time this church was built, in the 12th Century, English didn’t exist. There was bad Latin, Normal French and Anglo-Saxon. Stir them all in together and eventually…

  100. Home this evening – I had to get my OH to break into my bag. I use a small padlock to keep both ends of the zip together and I couldn’t find the keys.
    I thought I,’d put them in my pocket but I have a nasty suspicion I must have left them on the bed in the hotel room this morning.

      1. It was just a little simple padlock which I’ve had for years. Will have to find a small replacement and will aim to go for a combination one.

  105. 383896+up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    As with many mainline issues as long as the Dover daily treachery is operational deportation/importation cancels itself out.

    Foreign criminals face deportation under plans to free up prisons
    Justice Secretary Alex Chalk says shoplifters, thieves and drug dealers will be expelled and banned from returning

  106. Well, chums, that’s it for me for another day. Good Night, sleep well and awaken tomorrow refreshed.

  108. Wordle 982 4/6

    Good morning (Monday) chums. I post here Monday’s Wordle result.

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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